Great Britain

Welcome to Great Britain. We are in Brighton. It´s a seaside resort and a spa. There you can see an example of oriental architecture. Here is a special system of buildings called Royal Pavilion. Canterbury is the seat of the Archbishop and cathedral whose oldest part originated in the 11th century. The Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket was murdered in the cathedral by order of the king in 1170. Then was Thomas Becket named a saint. Now we are in London. It´s the capital city of The United Kingdom and there live about ten million people. There we could visit many places for example St. Paul´s Cathedral, Tower of London, The Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace and so on. Today we won´t visit these places. You´ve been there with our last tour so I think you know this city very well. So if you want to buy some souveniers there, now you have about two hours free and you can buy there whatever you like. Now we will go to our next stop – Oxford. It´s a famous university city and it´s about fifty miles north-west of London. It was founded in 12th century. There are 35 colleges, for example Christ Church College which is the largest one, Radcliffe Camera where is an observatory and a library and Merton College. The name of this city arose - there were oxen crossing the river. The city is sometimes called as The city of Dreaming Spires. Stratford-upon-Avon was founded by King Richard I. in 1196 and became famous as the birthplace of William Shakespeare. It´s the birthplace of John Harvard, the founder of Harvard University, Cambridge, USA, too. The centre of the city is full of magnificent half-timbered medieval houses. Now we´ll go to the Liverpool. It was founded in 12th century as Oxford. It´s an important port. This city is connected with the well-known music group the Beatles. Manchester is the centre of textile industry. Then we can visit Lake District. It has associations with pre-romantic poets such as William Wordsworth or Samuel Coleridge who were inspired by the natural beauty of this region. They are called Lake poets. This area was made a national park in 1951. Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland. It is one of the most beautiful cities. There you can find many historical buildings: the Castle which was built in 12th century on a hill. The Palace of Holyroodhouse was built from 15th to 16th century. It is the official Scottish residence of Royal family. There is also the historical street as Royal Mile and Princes Street with the monument dedicated to Sir Walter Scott who was born in Edinburgh. The city holds an annual Festival of Music and Drama and is the home of a university since 1583. Glasgow lies on the west coast of Scotland. It is the largest city of Scotland and the second city of Empire. There are two universities. The city has been one of the important commercial cities since 19th century, fashionable and merchant city too. There you can see Victorian architecture, St. Vincen´s church which is one of the most pretended buildings around the world, Burell´s collection which is a private collection of antique artifacts, 17 museums, 10 theaters, Scottish opera and ballet. Near this city is Loch Lomond which is the largest freshwater Scottish lake. Aberdeen is connected with a special kind of industry, oil industry. Oil discoveries in the North Sea transformed the city into the offshore capital. Islands are very visited because of beautiful nature. There is Gaelic culture. The islands have special magic. One of the islands is called the Isle of Skye. On some island there are castles or ruins. Belfast is the capital city of Nothern Ireland. There are religion conflicts in Nothern Ireland because there is majority represented by protestants and minority represented by catholics. These two groups fight at each other. Nothern Ireland is called Ulster too.